[Illustration: FIG. 219.—Left manus of Patagonian Deer (_Hippocamelus bisulcus_). _S._, scaphoid. _L._, lunar. _Py._, pyramidal. _Td._, _M._, coössified trapezoid and magnum. _Un._, unciform. _Mc. II_ and _V_, rudimentary second and fifth metacarpals. _Mc. III_ and _IV_, cannon-bone. _Ph. 1_, _2_, first and second phalanges. _Ung._, ungual phalanx.] [Illustration: FIG. 220.—Left pes of Patagonian Deer. _Cal._, calcaneum. _As._, astragalus. _N._, _Cb._, coössified navicular and cuboid. _Mt. III_, _IV_, cannon-bone. Other letters as in Fig. 219.] As already intimated, the subdivision of the Pecora into smaller groups is far from easy. “The great difficulty which all zoölogists have felt in subdividing them into natural minor groups arises from the fact that the changes in different organs (feet, skull, frontal appendages, teeth, cutaneous glands, etc.) have proceeded with such apparent irregularity and absence of correlation that the different modifications of these parts are most variously combined in different members of the group.”[9] Two main sections of the suborder are, however, sufficiently well defined, (1) the Cervicornia and (2) the Cavicornia. SECTION CERVICORNIA. DEER AND GIRAFFES This section includes two families, the giraffes and the deer. Inasmuch as the former have not now and never did have any representatives in the western hemisphere, for the purposes of this book the section becomes identical with the deer family. 8. _Cervidæ. Deer_ In most of the deer now existing the male has antlers. The antler is a bony outgrowth from the frontal bone of the skull and is annually shed and replaced, increasing, as a rule, in size and in the number of branches with each renewal. During the period of growth the antler is richly supplied with blood-vessels and covered with skin and is then said to be “in the velvet,” which dries and peels off when growth is complete; after the rutting season a layer of bone at the base of the antler is resorbed, loosening the antler, which is then shed. There is, however, a permanent, cylindrical process, of greater or less length, from each frontal, the “_pedicle_,” from which the antler is annually reproduced, and around the base of the antler and shed with it is a roughened ring, the “_burr_.” Among the different genera of deer there is great variety in the form and size of the antler, from a single spike to the immense and complicated appendages of the Wapiti (_Cervus canadensis_). As a rule, the “_beam_” or main stem of the antler and its branches or “_tines_” are cylindrical and tapering; but in some cases, as in the Moose (_Alce_) and the Fallow Deer (_Dama_), the antler is very broad and flat and is then said to be “_palmated_.” Except in the Reindeer and Caribou (_Rangifer_) the female is without antlers.